EVP of Qualcomm talks wearables

We had a chance to sit together with Rob Chandhok, Senior Vice President at Qualcomm Technologies and President, Qualcomm Interactive Platforms. He is the chipmaker’s key person for wearables and the AllJoyn standard. Here at Fudzilla we recognize the growing influence of wearables and wanted to know a bit more about them from one of the key people from the industry.

At the beginning of our meeting Rob showed us a Toq samrtwatch and stated that this is a technology demonstration of what is possible. Qualcomm wanted to show the world what can be accomplished by using alternative display technologies such as Mirasol, wireless charging and a tiny 240mAh battery – with these components the company can create a device that can go for a few days on a single charge.

He mentioned that you don’t want an USB charger on such tiny device and that the SoC inside has to use micro AMPs in order to last a few days.

Mirasol is a colour alternative to E-paper and it will run for several days on this small battery, which is a huge advantage over a few other wearable watches on the market. He has mentioned that wearable devices should be treated as jewelry by end users.

Here at Fudzilla we would not be surprised to see jewelry inspired wristbands as Fitbit, Nike fuel band and other wearables might be a bit too sporty. We are sure that someone will come up with something that looks a bit fancier. The 240mAh battery is inside a 91 gram watch with Bluetooth 3.0, wireless charger, a display that last a few days is a nice step forward and prove of concept that apparently might become a product for some Qualcomm customers.

Rob didn’t want to single out potential partners, but we saw the Toq (should be pronounced Talk ed.) at CES and MWC and it looks nice. In case you like digital watches and need even more technology on your body, instead of just in the pocket. The Cortex M3 processor is apparently enough for both the Fitbit wristband that helps NSA keep an eye on you, and it does well for Toq watch. The key according to Rob Chandhok is low power processor, matched with low power display such as Mirasol.